


the anchor's on board, and the cable's all stored

by mystipans



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Pirates, Aromantic Character, Aromantic Oikawa Tooru, Aromantic Sugawara Koushi, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Oikawa Being His Bastard Self, Pirates, Siren Oikawa Tooru, Sirens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24637624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mystipans/pseuds/mystipans
Summary: “What is it?” Suga presses.Nishinoya stares out for another moment, and then blinks hard and shakes his head. “I don’t hear it anymore,” he says, extremely unhelpfully.Suga’s hair is going to go gray. Well, grayer.“Whatdid you hear, Nishinoya?” he puts as much sternness into his tone as he can muster. Even to his ears, he’s failed. Some (more like all, really) of his exasperation managed to slip into his tone.“Something like... humming.”Or: a siren lures in Suga's band of pirates, and he's the only one who can save them.
Relationships: Azumane Asahi & Sugawara Koushi, Oikawa Tooru & Sugawara Koushi, Sawamura Daichi & Sugawara Koushi
Comments: 5
Kudos: 48





	the anchor's on board, and the cable's all stored

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by my super awesome friend blue_in_the_breeze!! They came up with the idea for this and I just wrote it ahaha :D

Koushi runs a hand through his silver hair as he stares over the deck of his ship. The Crow isn’t a bad ship at all— but it’s certainly not the best. He and his crew had gotten it from another band of pirates after their captain was thrown in jail. At first, they’d been elated. They’d heard that the Crow was one of the best on the seas. They should have suspected something from how willingly the other band was ready to hand over a supposedly famed boat for so little cost.

It didn’t take them long after inheriting it to find that it had fallen into disrepair.

The crew had been told recently that back in Miyagi, where they’d gotten the Crow in the first place, there was a group of people who could help them. There weren’t any more details than that, though, other than the fact that there was someone named Kageyama among the sailors they were searching for, and he was some renowned navigator. Koushi doesn’t really know how else they’d help the ship, though. The only real reason they’ve decided to see was because they need more supplies anyway. It’s about a two days’ journey to get there starting tonight.

Honestly, Koushi’s not sure about getting a new navigator. He’s already this crew’s steersman. There’s really no use for another one.

(And what would happen to him if this new navigator’s _better?)_

The air is buzzing.

Daichi stands at the helm absentmindedly, fiddling with the wheel but not turning it. They don’t have to— Miyagi is straight ahead.

“Suga, do you hear that?” the captain asks.

Koushi frowns. He turns his face back to the sea, listening.

“No. Why? Do you hear another ship?” He squints. “I don’t see one.”

Daichi blinks and shakes his head distractedly. “It’s nothing, probably. I…” he rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “I haven’t slept in a while. That must be it.”

“Daichi!” Suga makes his way to the helm and elbows him in the side, pretending not to hear the grunt of pain Daichi makes. “Go. I can handle this for the next few hours.”

Daichi gives him a grateful look and heads down to the captain’s quarters, rubbing at his side. Suga sighs, shifts his focus elsewhere. His hair is getting pretty long. He has to cut it one of these days. It curls around the base of his neck now, and the bangs in front of his face are at the exact length that’s too short to tuck behind his ears, but long enough to dangle in his face.

Their crew is pretty small for the size of their ship. He, Asahi, and Daichi are the ones who make the most calls— well, mostly Koushi and Daichi. Asahi would probably faint if he had to make a decision. Tanaka, Nishinoya, Ennoshita, Narita, and Kinoshita are pretty eager to follow along.

Maybe he should take a page out of Tanaka’s book and just cut all of his hair off. It would certainly save Koushi the effort of brushing it out of his eyes all the time.

Growing it out would let him tie it back, though. He takes a moment to imagine himself with Asahi’s hair.

Nevermind. Ribbons are too hard to deal with.

Oho— speaking of Asahi. Nishinoya stumbles up from below deck, yawning. “Yo, Suga-san,” he mumbles, rubbing at his eye.

“Nishinoya? You should go back to sleep. The sun’s only going to rise in some…” he squints at the moon. “Four? Four hours. And we’re doing ship maintenance.”

The boy in question shakes his head blearily. “Couldn’t sleep.”

Koushi raises an eyebrow. That has to be a lie. “You don’t look like it.” Nishinoya looks like he was sleeping just fine, but got woken up by something.

The shorter boy yawns again. His eyelids are all droopy. How cute.

“Do you hear that?” He gestures at absolutely nothing. How helpful.

Suga frowns. He still can’t hear anything. There are waves crashing against the ship, but they hear that all the time— he tunes it out, usually. There’s the faint rustle of cloth as the sails catch the wind, but they hear that all the time. The soft creak of wood from the rocking of the boat. The quiet scratch of crates bumping against each other. The billowing of the flag up at the crow’s nest. But they hear _all_ of that _all the time!_

“No. What is it?”

Nishinoya wanders past him, peering over the rails to the sea on the starboard side of the ship and leans out. Oh, Koushi had been on the port side. Maybe that was why he hadn’t heard when Daichi mentioned it…?

But Nishinoya had presumably somehow heard it from his quarters— that must have been what woke him. Maybe Asahi’s quarters. They stay at each others’ to talk so often that it’s hard to guess at this point. If it weren’t past midnight and he wasn’t too tired to start the conversation, Koushi would make fun of him for it.

Following him to the edge, Koushi strains his ears. Nothing.

“What is it?” Suga presses.

Nishinoya stares out for another moment, and then blinks hard and shakes his head. “I don’t hear it anymore,” he says, extremely unhelpfully.

Suga’s hair is going to go gray. Well, grayer.

“What did you _hear,_ Nishinoya?” he puts as much sternness into his tone as he can muster. Even to his ears, he’s failed. Some (more like all, really) of his exasperation managed to slip into his tone.

“Something like... humming.”

All of a sudden, Yuu slaps his face with both hands. “Anyway!” he shouts. “I’m awake now! Do we have any bread left?”

Koushi is going insane. Everyone is _distracted_ today.

He catches Ennoshita— _Ennoshita!_ — staring somewhere off the ship while cleaning. The midday sun blazes mercilessly onto the deck, and he’s in the unfortunate spot not shaded by the tall posts the sails are hung on. His hands are still on the broom, and he’s staring over the right side of the ship, like Noya was earlier.

“Oi! What is it!”

Ennoshita snaps back into focus. “Sorry, Suga-san. I hea—”

“Don’t tell me,” Koushi groans. “You _heard something.”_

“I…” Ennoshita’s brow furrows. “You don’t? Kinoshita and Narita said they hear it too.”

“Humming, right?”

“Yes.”

“How much did you all drink yesterday?”

“...No comment.”

Suga waves his hand, annoyed. He paces around the ship.

“Hey. Asahi.”

The man spins around with a start. For someone so big, he’s so damn timid. Like a mouse in a bear’s body. Maybe Nishinoya will be able to get some courage into him. He’s a terrible influence in every other way, but Asahi’s practically immune to ideas that involve rule breaking. Mostly because of his endless list of things to be terrified of, the first item of which is being caught breaking rules.

“Do you hear humming?”

Asahi blinks at him. He turns his head a little, listening for a few moments. Koushi’s about to say something about being damn thankful it’s not just him who can’t, but then Asahi says, “Um. A little? It’s… not very loud, but yes.” He rubs his arm, as anxious as always. “Why?”

Koushi frowns. “Everyone else hears humming too. Something’s wrong.”

But if Asahi only hears it a little bit, then maybe the sound is getting farther away. It had been to the right of the ship, and to his knowledge, they hadn’t turned at all; the sound _must_ be getting farther. Koushi grabs a snack and goes to his quarters. He hadn’t slept all night. Maybe he just needs a nap.

Magic isn't real. If it was, he’d hear something too.

If there’s one thing Suga trusts, it’s his own senses.

He naps for too long. He’s asleep for five hours.

(He dreams of a faint sea shanty.)

And he doesn’t notice that the ship slowly, slowly, slowly, makes an almost hundred-and-eighty turn by the time he wakes.

When he comes back up to the deck, Daichi, at the back of the ship, hands on the wheel, is staring ahead. Koushi blinks at the faint island behind him— they’d already passed that one, hadn’t they? It takes a few moments for Koushi to flip open his compass and reorient himself and realize— they’re going _north_. Miyagi was to the west of where they came from. “Oi! Daichi!” Koushi cries. They had been headed in the right direction!

Daichi turns a pair of glassy eyes towards him. Suga’s heart lurches, and he shouts again. Nothing. He waves his hands in front of his captain’s face, claps, shrieks, _yells_. He runs to the front of the ship— Tanaka, Nishinoya, and the rest are watching ahead with the same unfocused, blank look—

Staring right at an island. A rocky shore looms before the ship, menacing and frightening and threatening to destroy this ship and this idiot ragtag crew it houses. Asahi would have a meltdown if he were— Asahi. He didn’t hear it as strongly at first, maybe he’ll snap out of it— no, he has to try Daichi again first. He's at the wheel of the ship. He's the best bet.

Koushi sprints back to him. The wood rasps beneath his feet. God, if his crew were watching him, they’d make fun of him for running back and forth like a madman, and suddenly Koushi hears it.

It’s a quiet melody— but somehow he hears it over the crashing waves as if it were right by his ear. If Suga didn’t know the boisterous sea shanty that Noya and Tanaka sang when they were drunk off their sorry asses last night, he’d think it was a different song.

_“Well a night with some girls wouldn’t do us any harm, and we’ll all hang on behind, and we'll roll the old chariot along, yeah, we'll roll the golden chariots along…”_

The hairs on the back of Koushi’s neck rise.

(He doesn’t want to think it’s a siren.)

(He really, really, really doesn’t want to be the one who has to save this idiot crew.)

“DAICHI!” he thunders, grabbing his captain by the lapels of his shirt. The man blinks a few times. Suga slaps him. He screams again. He tries to drag Daichi away— no use. He’s planted his feet into the ground, and he’s too solidly built for Koushi to pull him.

_“TURN THE SHIP AROUND!”_

He shrieks again, then, as a last-ditch attempt, punches Sawamura in the side.

The captain flinches back with a grunt, and finally, finally, Koushi tries to shove him aside to grab at the wheel—

But Daichi recovers too quickly, shoots him a distant glare, and shoves him back, reclaiming his place.

Oh, these idiots are going to owe him _so_ much after this.

“ASAHI!” Koushi tries now, scrambling back to his feet.

He has to stop the ship.

The man in question’s hands tighten around the rail of the ship from where he watches ahead next to Kinoshita, and that’s enough for Suga. Swallowing his pride, he fucking _runs back_ — and screams in the brunette’s ear.

He flinches and manages to look at Suga. His grip on the rail loosens, and before his eyes go glassy again, Suga drags him by the arm towards the anchor.

The song gets louder now. Asahi stills.

_“Yeah, we'll roll the golden chariots along…”_

Suga could scream in frustration. He rams into his friend with all his might, shoving Asahi the last few steps towards the anchor. He picks up the—

The anchor is devastatingly heavy. It has to be, of course it does, how could he forget its entire purpose is to stop a massive ship in its tracks?

It drops from his hands. The anchor is just so too much.

Asahi’s eyes drift back to the source of the song.

_“We'll roll the golden chariots along…”_

Throwing the anchor is Asahi’s and Tanaka’s job. Koushi is the navigator. He doesn’t have to do this. That’s the whole point of—

He stomps on Asahi’s foot. Hard. “HELP ME!” he shrieks.

His voice will be so sore tomorrow. (In the back of his mind, Koushi knows what’s happening.) 

(This is a siren’s song.)

Somehow, the pain makes it through Asahi’s haze; when Koushi hauls up the anchor with all his strength, the taller man grasps at it foggily, and Suga somehow guides Asahi to toss it off board just as his hands go slack again (that song is getting louder). He scrambles back to the chain, untangling it frantically, throwing it overboard after the anchor. Suga lets it keep flying and prays the metal will catch on mud and not rocks.

They’re fairly close to the rocks: about twenty or so feet from the stern of the ship. The anchor shouldn’t have to fall too far, but the drag from the water holds it back, and the ship is moving closer and closer and closer

and closer

and-

The anchor finds purchase on the seafloor.

Just, just, _just_ as the ship’s head scrapes the first rock of the looming cliffshore, as Koushi hears the loud screech of wood on stone, the ship halts. He could cry from relief.

He ties the rest of the anchor’s chain back and spares another look at his friend as the boat slows and jolts ever so slightly as the anchor yanks it back.

Koushi’s heart pounds.

“Oi. Asahi,” he manages faintly, through the blood rushing he hears in his ears.

No reaction.

_“Well a plate of Irish stew wouldn't do us any harm, well a plate of Irish stew wouldn't do us any harm, well a plate of Irish stew wouldn't do us any harm…”_

Suga’s gonna strangle that siren.

(Why isn’t he entranced by it too?)

(Is it because he’s—)

He elbows Asahi as hard as he can in the side. The taller man groans.

And then he’s gone again. Pulled back to the song, now loud and clear, he stumbles forward to the front deck again, joining his friends to listen to it.

And now, finally, now that the ship is safe, Koushi can give whichever siren is singing it a piece of his mind. He takes a moment to calm his racing heart.

_“A drop of Nelson's blood wouldn't do us any harm... a drop of Nelson's blood wouldn't do us any harm... a drop of Nelson's blood wouldn't do us any harm… and we’ll all hang on behind…”_

Koushi has never seen a shore like this before. He’s not sure it can even be called a shore. It’s close to a damn cliff— where the land meets the water there is no sand. Only rocks. Massive boulders, many a few feet taller than the navigator himself. The cracks and spaces between them form a path, almost. Suga grits his teeth, ignores the riotous sea shanty turned mournful melody that drifts through the air.

He climbs down the ship’s ladder to the shallow water. God— he hadn’t realized how close he’d been to the shore.

He tries, he tries so hard to pretend he can’t see the rotten wooden planks floating around the waters.

He tries, again, to not see the bones.

Suga rolls up his pant legs to wade through the shallow water. When he makes it to land, the leather squelch of his soaking wet boots makes him cringe. He takes a deep breath.

God, the water was cold.

His socks are dripping. He wants to dry them.

Koushi hears a loud sigh, fainter than the song but still sounding like it’s right next to his ear. That siren again, probably. They take a deep breath and start a new one.

_“Now we are ready to sail for the horn, weigh hey, roll and go! Our boots and our clothes…”_

The navigator shoots another anxious look at his ship, where the empty faces of his crew stare forward. Would they even eat like this?

Would they just wither away, entranced by the song till their deaths?

No. The siren can’t sing that long. They _can’t_.

He follows the source of the noise through the craggy, rough path between the boulders. The sky is pitch dark. Only the moon and the stars light his path. Which is to say, he can’t see much at all. 

Koushi’s main guide is that damned shanty, though. His skin scrapes against the walls of the path when it gets narrow.

He’ll take a few scratches if it means his crew is safe. Absentmindedly, he thinks about how he’ll patch the injuries up when he gets back. And about how much more convenient this would be with a torch.

His forehead knocks against a sudden jutting rock piece and he hisses in pain. He tries to pull his hand up to rub at it, and his left hand gets banged against another stone.

He hates this island. And maybe a torch _wouldn’t_ be a good idea, if this is how much space he has.

_“Heave a pawl, o heave away, weigh, hey, roll and go... The anchor's on board, and the cable's all stored, to be rollicking Randy Dandy-O…”_

He very much doesn’t think about why he wasn’t caught in the song too.

Just when Koushi’s boots have finally stopped squeaking so damn much, and the song is loud enough to make his head hurt a little bit, he finds it.

The boulders taper away to show what Koushi might call a clearing if he were in a forest. It’s pretty damn close to a circle surrounded by boulders, and there’s a shallow pool, around a foot and a half deep, filled with clear water in the center. In the middle of the pool is another tall rock, about as high as Suga’s shoulder, with a man—no, not a man— perched atop it, facing the rocks away from Koushi.

His silvery-blue tail trails in the translucent water. His hair is brown and his skin pale— silvery blue gills are marked on his neck, and there are a pair of webbed fins along his sides. Long webbed fingers brush the boulder he’s sitting on. He doesn’t seem to breathe within his verses.

_“Soon we'll be warping her out through the locks, weigh hey... roll and go… where the pretty young girls will come down in their frocks…”_

Koushi’s never heard this song before. But he’s sure it isn’t meant to be sung this melancholy.

He ducks behind one of the towering rocks.

The song pauses.

“Iwa-chan?” the siren calls.

Suga grits his teeth.

The siren listens in silence for a few more moments, then takes a deep breath, and Koushi decides, you know what, _screw_ this. This mermaid will _not_ be singing any more of that song.

Koushi stands abruptly and clears his throat just as the song is about to continue.

The siren’s head whips around to catch his gaze. He does a strange little shimmy around to face Suga, who catches a glimpse of dark aquamarine eyes that crinkle up as the face they belong to splits into a smile.

The human marches through the water, ignoring how it drags at his feet and his calves and stops just above his knees, reaches up to grip that damn siren’s arm, and yanks him right down into the water. The siren yelps as he falls, and Koushi almost wants to try and kick him while he’s down. The water lugging at his ankles would make that pretty damn hard. He keeps one hand firmly grasped around the siren’s wrist and wrenches his upper half right back out again. Those gills flutter, nervously, Koushi can only assume, but the mermaid shoots him a sweet smile.

“Hello!” he says sweetly. “I see you weren’t charmed by my song.”

This little—

Koushi twists his arm behind his back and holds him there for a moment while he takes a deep breath, and a fraction of the simmering anger from thinking he and his crew might shipwreck and be _killed_ tonight is replaced by satisfaction at the yelp the siren makes. “Oi, let me go! What are you _doing?”_

“I’m Sugawara Koushi,” he says, pleasantly as it’s possible to be. “I’m part of the crew you almost killed.”

He decides to drop the siren unceremoniously right back down into the water like he wanted, reminding himself that the only people he’s allowed to punch are his friends. The siren scrambles back, flicking his tail back and forth.

“Aren’t you just Mr. Refreshing,” he huffs. The mermaid pouts. He literally _pouts_.

Suga rolls his eyes. Immature. “I don’t want any more trouble. Lure my crew in again, and I’ll make you regret it.” He takes a deep breath and starts to wade back to land. Urgh, he didn’t roll up his pant legs back up before venturing into the lake. They’ll be soaked by now, not to mention the splatters of cold water along his sleeves and chest. It’s not a cold night by any means— it’s summer, but the water leeches warmth from his skin, and he shivers, now that the adrenaline has worn off.

He makes it out of the water.

… and he suddenly wants to turn around and look at the siren again. Koushi almost turns around, remembers it’s probably more of that damned magic kicking in, and keeps walking.

...

He turns around. Damn it. Siren Boy hasn’t made a sound since Koushi spun around, and that’s just too suspicious.

He’s just watching the human, in curiosity, or maybe awe. He must not be used to seeing living people. Possibly because he _kills_ them by leading them into shipwrecks. Who knows. “I’m Tooru,” he offers when Koushi faces him again. Koushi crosses his arms in response.

“You weren’t charmed,” Tooru continues when he doesn’t get a verbal answer. “How?” From his position propped up on his elbows at the middle of the pool he scrambles back up the boulder he had been perched on, slippery fingers eventually finding a grip and hauling his body up until he’s laying on his stomach on top of the rock. It can’t be comfortable— the stone looks rough.

Koushi shrugs.

(He thinks he knows.)

“That’s strange,” the siren muses. “Do you not like men? Either way, it usually works on everyone.”

“I don’t,” he says conversationally, carefully modulating his tone.

The rest of the crew are hopefully awake now. The moon is a fair 40 or so degrees from the horizon. Suga has a few hours till sunrise.

(He ignores the fact that Tanaka doesn’t like men, either. Neither does Kinoshita.)

Tooru’s looking at him calculatingly, now. He says, “So you’re into girls?”

One of his hands finds its way up to his neck nervously. “Yes,” Koushi lies. He wonders where the opening to the pool was. Tooru must have swam here from somewhere— he can’t walk, after all. He scans the floor of the pool to try and find it, but he can’t see much in the low light. It must be behind the center boulder, out of his line of sight.

“You’re lying,” the siren observes. Koushi grits his teeth.

“I just have to wait.” he makes his voice firm. He uses the tone he only ever uses on bad days, when there’s nothing left to talk about after an argument, when the crash of waves grates on everyones’ nerves, and he has to force Nishinoya to stop starting fights. “I’ll find someone eventually. Now if you don’t mind, I’ll find my way back to my crew. Don’t start singing again, or I’ll—”

“There’s nothing wrong with not wanting anyone like that, Refreshing-kun.”

“You would say that, wouldn’t you? All you do is lead humans to their deaths.” Koushi snaps. His voice is unnecessarily sharp. He knows that, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t.

“How rude of you to make assumptions. I’m the same way.”

(He’s never liked either of them. He never understood when his friends talked about girls when he was a child. Then he learned that on the seas, you could like boys, too, but he didn’t understand when his crewmates talked about boys, either.)

“Not what you were expecting, Refreshing-kun?” Tooru teases when he gets no answer, only a stare.

“If you don’t feel love, why do you lure people in?” he challenges.

“It’s fun!” the siren chirps, brightening for just a moment. His gaze darkens. “And I want to crash Shiratorizawa.”

“Shiratorizawa?”

“They’re another band of pirates. Pretty famous, their ship is the White Ea—”

“I know who they are. Why them specifically?”

Tooru scowls. “Their captain told me he knew someone who could cure me of my _affliction_.”

Suga’s not sure if he’s talking about being a siren, or being broken.

He doesn’t really want to ask. “Shame.”

The crew must be waking up by now. He has to tell them what happened. He turns to head back.

“Wait! Refreshing-kun, talk to me more.”

Is he really _whining?_

“You seem to have been singing for a while. Rest your voice,” Koushi answers curtly. He can practically hear the siren rolling his eyes.

“I could sing forever if I wanted to, Refreshing-kun. There’s no one here for me to _talk_ to. Iwa-chan, Makki, and Mattsun are off to hunt for the next few nights. And don’t you want to talk to who’s someone like y—”

“How do I know it isn’t _normal_ for your kind to not…” he turns back to face the siren, arms crossed. He gestures with one of his hands and hopes that gets the point across.

He doesn’t know why he’s still talking.

“Makki and Mattsun are together,” is the calm explanation. “They’re my friends. And sirens too.”

Koushi grits his teeth. How can Tooru just not care that he’s missing the biggest part of what makes him human?

Well, perhaps not being human at all helps him out in that regard. Koushi’s _different_. Falling in love seems to be all that his crewmates want in their lives; it’s Suga who’s the issue.

“What happened to your ship?” Tooru asks unexpectedly. “I didn’t hear it crash.”

Koushi thanks whatever gods are watching over him for the subject change. “No thanks to you. I stopped it.” The siren’s eyebrows rise.

“I guess it’s good that you’re like me, then,” he counters, pouncing on the opportunity. “You’d all have died if you we-ren’t!” He singsongs the last bit. Koushi’s heart jumps into his chest at the tiny melody.

“Shut up!” he hisses.

Tooru scoffs. “Your friends will be _fine,_ Refreshing-kun. A little tune won’t change anything. Stay here and talk with me. I want to know what’s happening out on land.”

Suga hesitates. He _doesn’t know why._

The answer is obvious. He has to go back to the Crow and make sure his crewmates are alright.

But… his feet hurt, as petty as that sounds. They’re cold, too, from the water. The squelch of his socks in his leather boots is uncomfortable, and he wants to sit down. Just for a moment.

...

Daichi can take care of the rest of the team. This siren doesn’t seem to mean any harm. And he’s restricted to the pool; Suga could always run away. Plus, he really wants to take off his sopping wet boots.

He walks back to the edge of the pool, trying not to care about the delighted squeal Tooru makes, and takes the offending socks and shoes off, placing them aside and laying them out on a dry patch of stone to dry. He dips his feet into the cool pond (is it really a pond if it’s surrounded by rocks? and has no plants in it?) as Tooru slithers off the boulder gracefully and swims to the edge. Koushi notices a nasty red spot on his side above his right fin, probably from when he was jerked down from the rock. The fin looks a little crumpled, too; he’s holding it close to his body. Koushi almost feels bad. The siren settles onto his stomach, propping his face above water on his elbows.

“I haven’t heard about the world in ages. Is it true there’s a new king?”

  
And they talk for hours. Koushi tells him bits and pieces about the world on land (though he doesn’t know much about it; most of his time has been spent sailing and looting bounty ships these days), while Tooru tells him about being a siren.

It seems like it would be lonely, really. There’s not much to do in the sea all day, according to Tooru. They swim. They catch fish. They talk. Koushi can almost understand why he would turn to killing sailors.

_Almost._

The sun rises by the time their conversation tapers to an end, mostly due to Koushi not being able to answer any more of Tooru’s questions, not being able to contribute to the siren’s ideas about magical beings from space, and the force of his fatigue from the previous day’s events slowly creeping back up on him.

They sit there in silence for a few more moments.

“Refreshing-kun—”

“My name is Sugawara,” he corrects tiredly. He really wants to sleep.

“Suga-chan, you should come back sometime. I need someone new to talk to.”

At the thought of being lured here again, Koushi shudders. “Hey! It’s not so bad!” Tooru complains.

“Hmm.”

Koushi’s exhausted. There’s another lull in their conversation as Tooru thinks.

“Hey, Suga-chan. It’s fine to be the way you are, I think.”

 _How do you know,_ he’d ask if the renewed force of his weariness didn’t just hit him like a ton of bricks at the topic.

“I mean, you don’t _have_ to marry someone. That’s what you humans do, right? And if you weren’t this way, you and your friends would have all died.”

“No. If you hadn’t started singing those damn songs, we wouldn’t’ve…”

He scoots towards the nearest rock and leans against it. Just a few minutes. Then he’ll head back to the crew. They won’t have to worry too long.

Maybe his boots will be able to dry in the meantime… He tucks one of the feet still hanging in the water back towards his body. The other one is too heavy.

A quiet huff and a ripple of water reaches his ears, and Koushi drifts off.

  
“OH MY GOD, SUGA-SAN DIED!”

Koushi jolts awake. The midday sun pours into the little rock pond he was sitting at. Thankfully, the stone he’s propped himself up on is just tall enough to shield him from the sun. 

And as happens every morning, Nishinoya is screaming.

Tooru is nowhere to be found.

 _“HE WHAT?”_ someone shrieks (it sounded like Asahi.). The sound of more running footsteps approach.

“Oi, Nishinoya.” Koushi groans. He rubs at his eye, blinking wearily to adjust to the light. “Shut up.”

The shorter boy gasps. He grins brightly at him from where he stands the entrance to the clearing. “NEVERMIND! HE’S FINE!”

“Don’t make us worry like that!” Daichi yells. He rushes out into the space and immediately runs to where Suga is attempting to use the rock to support his sore legs to stand up. “Are you alright?” he asks, helping him stand.

Koushi sways a little. He’s _hungry._

“Am I alr— are _you_ alright?” Koushi snaps, a little incredulously. “I was just taking a nap! Because after I spent all night rescuing you all from a _siren_ , I was tired!”

By now, Tanaka, Kinoshita, and the rest have squeezed their way into the rock clearing as well. Koushi crosses his arms and fixes them with his most disapproving glare. They all appear to find something incredibly interesting around their feet to stare at. Koushi clears his throat.

“Sorry, Suga,” Daichi mumbles. The rest of the crew mutters their apologies too. Koushi sighs.

“Not your fault. What happened to you all? I woke up and _you—_ ” he addresses Daichi— “were about to steer the ship into a cliff, and _you—_ ” he gestures towards the rest of them— “were just watching.”

Narita scratches the back of his neck sheepishly. “We heard the song and we don’t really remember what happened next.”

“I think you hit me once or twice,” Daichi says.

“Oh, you remember _that.”_ Pain can break through siren hazes. Interesting.

Asahi is notably silent, still watching the fascinating absolute nothing that is occurring on the floor.

“Well! If we’re all fine now, let’s go back. We have to find Kageyama and his people to help us, right?”

A chorus of agreements comes from the group. Their awkwardness is forgotten.

Koushi follows them out, back to their home.

  
“Ah, Suga?” Asahi asks nervously. They’re back in the water again— the rest of the crew had pulled the anchor back up to kill time before starting to search for Koushi. Daichi had been convinced that Koushi could take care of himself and would return within a few hours. After returning to the ship, the navigator ate about twice as much as he should’ve (well, not like anyone else was going to stop him) had headed back to his quarters, taking to his desk to document the events. Asahi shuffles into the room— even before Koushi asks him to. He’s growing!

“What is it?”

“Do you know why you weren’t affected by the song?”

Damn.

He thought it would be Daichi who would ask first. He and the rest of the crew seem adamant on giving Koushi his space for the time being, even after he told them he didn’t blame them, it was fine. He’s honestly kind of surprised that Asahi was able to bring it up first. Nishinoya’s baseless confidence must be rubbing off on him. If that wasn’t the question he’d been asked, Koushi would be proud. He looks away.

He briefly weighs the options.

Asahi’s timid— he’s not stupid. He’d know if one of his best friends, who he’d known for years now, was lying. And honestly, Koushi’s not the greatest liar anyways.

“I don’t really…” he takes a deep breath and releases it. “I don’t want people… like that,” he admits. “I spoke to the siren after finding him, that’s why you found me in that place. He told me that was probably why I wasn’t entranced.”

Asahi relaxes. “Neither do I. Like people like that, I mean. At f—”

The loud screech of Suga’s chair on the wood as he shoves it back to stand up suddenly earns him a few faint groans from upstairs.

The taller man holds his hands in front of him placatingly, alarmed. “Um. Not like that. I mean, not at first. Um. I should. Explain.

“I talked to Noya about it, and it’s not like this for him. He asked, um, Ennoshita and Kinoshita, too, even though I told him it was fine. But they said that they can develop... feelings for people really quickly? And it takes a really long while for me. So maybe that’s why I wasn’t as affected as the rest of them. Because I think I remember what happened.”

Asahi fiddles with his fingers, looking away. Koushi just stares.

“Anyway. Uh, thank you for saving us.”

He leaves.

Suga watches him go.

Daichi will ask him about it later, too. So will Ennoshita. And Koushi thinks…

Well, even if they don’t _get_ it, they won’t hate him. And Koushi being... like _this_ is what saved all their asses in the end.

So maybe there are worse things to be.

**Author's Note:**

> If I didn't clarify it well enough asahi's demisexual lol
> 
> Thank you for reading this fic! I hope you liked it, and any comments would be very appreciated. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day/night <3!


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